The Los Angeles Clippers held a rally for fans Monday afternoon at Staples Center, one designed to say this is a new era and introduce new owner Steve Ballmer to the fan base.

Well, that’s quite a first impression.

Ballmer spent 15 minutes basically screaming as loud as he had since he tried to sell Zunes (he’s the former Microsoft CEO, worth $20 billion). He promised the Clippers would be “HARDCORE” (you need to use all caps when describing a Ballmer rally) and got the crowd to chant “LARRY” as in O’Brien. The NBA Championship trophy. Ballmer promised more Larrys in the next 26 years than the last 26. So… one should cover that.

It was a completely whack, over the top performance. The players could barely suppress their laughter, watch them.

And still this is good for the Clippers.

Donald Sterling was an energy drain on the organization, staff tried to shield him from basketball operations and spent time worrying about when he would do something and they would have to go into damage control.

Ballmer is optimistic and energetic. Maybe to a fault. But if I’m a Clipper fan — or player — I will take that trade-off in a heartbeat.

THAT TELLS YOU A NEW ERA HAS BEGAN FOR THE LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS. ACTIONS AND WORDS SPEAKING LOUDLY AT THE SAME TIME. Wow. Now I believe can win the NBA Championship because the owner is on board and wants to win..at all costs.

Ballmer is not ready for prime time. Such antics might go over in small town Seattle, but that’s to cheesy for LA. Also, it was too much that he demanded fans to chant. Maybe his Microsoft employees could be commanded to bark like a dog. But, his paying customers shouldn’t allow themselves to dance for the billionare.

I was genuinely interested in watching Ballmer’s introduction. He took about one minute to convince me I’d seen enough.

This is actually kind of awesome. I saw this coming 10 million miles away. All ya gotta do is go to YouTube and watch some of his employee and stockholder presentations. He’s a madman…in a good way. Owning a basketball team isn’t like running the largest software manufacturer on planet Earth (not that running a franchise is easy though). Personally I think he’ll be a great owner. If I’m a Clippers player…yeah I’m laughing…and cheering, and clapping, and being completely stoked that this guy is my owner now. Also, if you don’t think this guys enthusiasm will pay dividends for the players on the court you got another thing coming. I think the Clippers just got just a tad more dangerous, not much, but a little. Best thing to happen to ownership since Mark Cuban.

Now we just need Bill Gates to buy a team, and the trifecta will be complete, Allen, Ballmer, and Gates. The Clippers are still behind the Spurs, and Thunder in the west. Blake Griffin or Chris Paul will have to be the MVP of league for them to have a chance to win it.

One of those guys are going to have to take his game to an even higher level. The Clippers just don’t have the depth of other teams.

Ok is it me or does it sounds like Steve is giving a MS keynote speech, but trying to insert sport/basketball into it. LOL Though I have to admit I am happy for the clipper fans and community that they have a great owner and a awesome leader finally.

By the way I am a Laker fan, i’m just happy to to see racism is not winning.